


All Her Boys

by finch (afinch)



Category: Ever After (1998)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-22 00:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/pseuds/finch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fluffy story in which Danielle is on bed rest and some of the boys in her life just don't listen ...</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Her Boys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [abriata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abriata/gifts).



"Gustave is asking for you again, m'lady." the Guard said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Henry frowned as he rose from the bed, "He knows you must keep your bed. I'll see to him."

"He only wants to talk," Danielle protested. "You will let him know that it's not by his fault or my choice that I see him so seldom?"

Henry kissed the top of her head, "Oh, I will make certain he knows that I'm the cruel parent. You do need to rest."

Danielle sighed and rubbed her swollen belly, falling back onto the pillows. "I always need to rest," she muttered as Henry left. 

It was the most difficult pregnancy by far, made worse by the circumstances of last winter, when the sheets had been brought up heavily perfumed and Danielle had vomited until the baby had passed, much too young, out of her. She rubbed her belly again. It held another chance, and the doctor had ordered her to her bed until the baby came. 

She was back in the Manor by now; no matter what Henry said, or requested, she was in the Manor instead of the Palace. She preferred her Manor - and it was hers. She owned it now, and the farm that came with it. She worked beside her laborers, working to feed herself when she could have had everything handed to her. "A person must earn her own bread," she'd scolded Henry. "I don't want our children thinking anything less of life." She had negotiated with Henry to permit the children to stay until the age of 10 before moving into the Palace. She herself had rooms there, the rooms she shared with Henry, but home was, and always would be, the Manor. 

"He is quite stubborn," Henry said, reappearing entirely too quickly. "I wonder where he inherited that?” 

Danielle laughed, glad her husband had come back, "He's only four, and he just wants his mother." She just wanted her children too; she missed them dearly while abed. Still, the doctor had ordered, and she would comply, if with a sore heart. 

"He shall have his mother back when she has his brother or sister safe in her arms."

"Sister," Danielle said, rubbing her belly again. "I can tell. Leo thinks it's a girl as well."

Henry came and sat on the edge of the bed, stroking his wife's hand gently, "Yet you will not even entertain the possibility that it may be another son." He secretly wanted a sister for his sons as well, but ... A son should have a name, and Danielle would not speak of one. Unless it was a girl's name, of course.

"I'm sick of princes!" Danielle said, though she smiled. "I need a little princess to spoil as well."

"If by ‘spoil’ you mean 'let frolick in the mud and soil her gowns’," Henry chided gently. Not that he would mind; he wouldn't want anything less for his daughters than what he wanted for his sons. Danielle had turned out to be a perfect lady in the end, so how could he go wrong?

Danielle grinned, "Why yes, that is exactly what I meant. Now, Sofia or Thérèse?"

Henry sighed, "My stubborn wife, Sofia is not a French name. Shouldn't we choose classic and French? And Louis for a boy?" He slipped in the last question, but he knew his wife would quickly dismiss it. And indeed ...

"Don't even suggest such things, Henry. She's a girl. Besides, classic or not, half of France will name their daughters after her."

Henry arched a brow, "Only half?" 

"Yes, the other half are still too busy naming their sons Auguste," Danielle teased. There was a soft sigh from near the curtains, a sigh Danielle knew as her second sons'. When she looked to the guard for confirmation, he was wearing an amused look on his face. So much for Henry being the cruel parent and telling Gustave to stay away. Henry, too, could only bear so much.

"Gustave, the ladies called their sons by your name as well," Danielle called, putting a hand on Henry's thigh to keep him in place. "Just as they named their sons Francis and Claude before and after you." Hercules came between Gustave and Claude, but his name had not been so popular. He was a sickly child, slow to thrive, and stayed with the wet nurse longer than any of the other boys had. 

A little boy with a sad, mournful look peeked out from under the curtain and sighed heavily again, "I don't _want_ another little brother. I want a sister."

"Oh, come here," Danielle said. "You musn't fret so much. Now, have a care, don't kick me. Get your father to help." She was unable to resist little Gustave, third in line to the throne after his brother and father. He was spirited and willful, much like his namesake. There hadn't been much uproar over a royal heir being given such a common name, and Danielle supposed being a commoner herself probably helped. 

Henry, knowing better than to disobey his wife (or discipline his very persistent son), lifted the small boy up onto the bed. "There are too many boys," young Gustave protested some more. "I need a sister." 

He was right, it was unusual that they'd had five boys all in a row and no little girls. The last baby had been lost far too soon to tell if it was a little boy or girl. Danielle knew, she knew with her entire being, that this child was a girl. "What do you think?" she asked the little boy. "Sofia or Thérèse?"

Henry leaned over, and loud enough for Danielle to hear, whispered, "Thérèse, Gustave, say Thérèse!" Henry knew whatever Danielle decided would be the child's name, and he wasn't going to fight her. They'd already broken tradition with Gustave. Sofia was a Greek name, and he was nearly certain that a princess in in that area had just been named that, but he would never tell his wife that. She changed her mind about the name almost every day, and he suspected nothing would actually be decided until they looked at the child, and even then, Danielle would probably say, 'Oh, she looks like an Emmeline, doesn't she?'

"You cheat, good sir," Danielle said, laughing. She turned to her second child, who was aptly named, as he was very much like his namesake. "Now, Gustave, do not heed your father. Which do you like better?" 

And Gustave, not wanting to upset either of his parents, for he loved them both dearly, simply suggested, "Both?" 

"Yes, but which one comes first?" Henry asked, reaching over to tickle the boy. 

The little boy could only shriek with laughter and Danielle closed her eyes, the sounds of her family being a family more than relaxing enough for her to do what the doctor had ordered and actually rest. Within moments, she was sound asleep.


End file.
